Other Ioniq Hybrids come in at 55 mpg, including our test car, which beats the rest of the Prius range's 52 mpg combined.

On this test, just for kicks, we left the car in its "Eco" setting for the entire trip. Over a drive that blended highway speeds, two-lane rural roads, and a bit of stop-and-go in-town traffic, we got an indicated 49.5 miles per gallon.

That's neatly within the 10-percent window we allow for hybrids, and we made very little effort to drive the Ioniq efficiently.

We wonder what the same route would have produced in the "Normal" mode—but unlike other hybrids (Honda, cough), the "Eco" mode only slightly degraded the Ioniq's performance, and not nearly to the degree that it irritated us.

Its all-electric abilities are somewhat limited, and we decided that the car's control software would take care of business and we could just drive.

That said, we noted that the Ioniq Hybrid would frequently drop into "EV" mode—indicating its engine was off—at times even at speeds of 60 mph or more, on downhill roads or after lifting off the accelerator to coast down to a lower speed.